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Central American lemon cichlid - Parachromis sp lake apanas

Does anyone have any info on Central American lemon cichlid - Guapote lemon - Parachromis sp.

I am setting up a tank for and planning an expedition to catch some Central American lemon cichlid - Guapote lemon - Parachromis sp lake apanas

However I have very little information to go on. Most comes from local lore and local scientists that was studying the species in the 1970 before the earthquake and war.. And I was wondering if anyone knows anything about the species at all. Have anyone even encounetered it.

Basically this is the info I got.Genus: Parachromis (this is not certain but very, very likely.)Habitat: Endemic to lake Apanas, Jinotega, NicaraguaDesc: Similar to other Parachromis species. pale lemon color body. Predatory speciesMax Size: Atleast 2 ft, frequent reports of 27-29 inchesPopulation: Dwindeling but still relatively common

Can anyone provide any info that can help me set up a tank for this tank or help me collected once I go on my expedition?

I have kept and breed Parachromis motaguense, managuense and Doovii so if no one knows anythign specific about the species the tank will be designed with these species in mind (all of which are native to the country and likely found in lake Apanas)

As far as I know it hasnt been described at all and not very much is known about it scientifically speaking. It is well known loacally as a food fish but the studies that was done was never finished. What I know about about the scientific studies of it comes to no small part from a friend of mine that was part of the the team that was researching it a long time ago. He was finishing of his marine biology degree back then. Then came the earthquake and the civil war and it was never finished or published. As far as I have been able to find out the work has not survived.

They guy in question became an officer in the war and after the war he has never been able to get back into biology. That is a big problem here. They did some really good work in the 50s and 60s and there is a lot of good reports to read if you can find them (google books is often othe best place to find them) but since than very little has happened. It is getting better again but it is still very bad due to lack of resources. This is a very poor country that used to be the richest country in central America.

I am currently waiting for some material from the US to help me collect some.

I do not know. Maybe I should turn my quest for this species into a journal.

I should add that this species most likely can be found in the Tuma River as well. The lake Apanas did not exist before 1964 when the river was dammed. That does not really leave enough time for an endemic species to form. The researchers knows the local wildlife well and says that this species differs greatly from other parachromis species in the country. To me this indicates that:

The species was already present in the river but discovered after the lake was built. the lake might have allow them to grow bigger than they earlier could in the river.

The species is hybrids between introduced parachromis species that we know were introduced to allow for commercial fishing and some local species.

They accidentally introduced an unknown species to the lake. This would mean that this species has another unknown location. Possible on the large unknown Caribbean coast. The lake is located near the central of the country which means that they might have brought fish from Caribbean rivers.

They introduced a species that since have been completely or almost completely deplete on lake nicaragua and the west coast. There are other examples of this. The tropical gar and the freshwater sawfish is among other species very rare these days. Last year there was no reported catch of sawfish and less than a 100 of gar.

Something in the environment cause a different coloration.

Getting some into an aqaurium should help to pgging down what the species might be.

It might be worth to mention that the world record doovi was caught in the lake so it is possible that something in this lake allow fish to grow quicker, larger than in the natural lakes. Might be that large parts of the bottom still is covered in forrest that covered the area before the lake was created in 64.